Racial, Ethnic & Religious Equality Policy Center

WHY BLACK LIVES MATTER MATTERS TO JSPAN (approved December 2015)

Prologue

In the aftermath of the controversial deaths of Black men and women at the
hands of sworn officers of the law in Ferguson, Missouri; Staten Island, New
York; Cleveland, Ohio; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Charleston, South Carolina; Baltimore,
Maryland; Waller County, Texas; and elsewhere, a national movement called Black
Lives Matter has risen in protest against injustice against African Americans.

JSPAN’s Aim

Black Lives Matter is a diverse, national movement, with many centers of
activism across the country that have different goals and purposes. JSPAN
cannot endorse every statement, idea, perspective, analysis, or policy proposal
that flies under the banner of that movement.

But, there is a long history of injustice against
Blacks in America, a history that, contrary to the views of many, is not over.
And there are critically important debates going on now about how American
political institutions and public policies, especially those connected with the
provision of law and order, affect Black lives.

The unjust deaths of Black men and women in the last year have been
horrifying. But without a movement dedicated to explaining, in passionate
detail, the sources of injustice, most of us would not be able to put the pieces
together and see the larger picture of the world in which we live. And without
a movement dedicated to bringing about the changes in the institutions,
practices, and policies necessary to end systemic and structural racism in our
criminal justice system, it will continue.

That is why the Black Lives Matter movement is so important. And it is why,
as an organization committed to social justice, one that is powered by Jewish
teaching and our own experience of discrimination at the hands of political
authorities, JSPAN offers this statement in support of the central
concerns raised by the Black Lives Matter movement and commits to seeking
concrete ways to take action, in conjunction with other groups, to bring about
the necessary education and political, social and public policy changes that
alone will end racism’s stranglehold on our political community.

Systemic and Structural racism

The central problem the Black Lives Matter movement addresses is systemic
and structural racism. There is little question that America has made some progress
in decreasing what we might call interpersonal racism. But there remain many
ways in which American institutions and policies systematically discriminate
against Black men and women.

This is true in many areas of life and especially in the still limited
economic opportunities open to Blacks. But the most important one in the
current public debate involves the criminal justice system. There is little
question that Black men and women are today subject to being harmed and killed
by police officers at rates that far exceed those of whites.

And that is why, though all lives certainly matter equally, there is good
reason for us to focus on the ways in which Black lives do not, but should,
matter in our criminal justice system.

To say that there is structural or systemic racism in the criminal justice
system is not necessarily to say that a police officer violated the law or
public duty in every case where a police officer has killed Black men or women.
We have not investigated each of those cases in sufficient depth to reach that
conclusion. But the sheer number of prominent cases and the statistics about
police shootings—statistics which no doubt underestimate the number by far—give
all of us reason for extreme concern.

Systemic Racism in the Criminal Justice System

How does this systemic and structural discrimination in the criminal
justice system work? We cannot do justice to the intricacies of the criminal
justice system here. But we can briefly point to seven areas of concern.

First, police officers bring to their work the latent stereotypes of Black
Americans that have for too long dominated our culture. Black police officers
may share the same sentiments as white police officers. Given those
stereotypes, Black people’s actions are far more likely to be interpreted as
aggressive, dangerous, and powerful than those of white people doing the same
things. Police officers that believe, sometimes wrongly, that they may open
fire when they believe their lives or bodily integrity are threatened by a
suspect, are far more likely to do so when he or she is Black rather than
white.

Second, the tactics employed by police officers in America often affect the
lives of Blacks and whites very differently. And because they are not sensitive
to the cultural differences between Black and white communities—including the
effects of those very tactics—these tactics are likely to lead to unfortunate
results. Police officers are sometimes trained to escalate their reaction to
those who disobey or threaten them by a show of physical or verbal force. But,
because they fear or expect trouble from Blacks, escalation tactics are more
likely to be used against them than whites. And Black people, who have seen or experienced
excessive force used against people like themselves, react out of fear or anger
to that escalation in ways that are understandable but contrary to what police
officers expect—for example, by running from or challenging the police. In
doing so, they may, unwittingly, cause a further, and possibly fatal,
escalation on the part of police.

Third, the strategies used by police officers in America are often
discriminatory in effect. While police officers may intend to use stop-and-frisk
tactics to monitor likely criminals in high crime areas, police officers’
judgments about who is a likely criminal and which areas to monitor result in Blacks
being stopped at much higher rates than whites. Similarly, “broken windows
policing,” which aims to reduce the level of perceived “disorder” on the
streets, often leads to minor laws being enforced more frequently and more
harshly in Black than white neighborhoods. Marijuana laws are enforced far more
often in Black communities than white ones, even though there is no racial
difference in the rates of marijuana usage. When police departments are used to
generate revenues for a local government, the burden of excessive policing
usually falls on Blacks because they are least likely to have the standing or
resources to object. And recent efforts to strengthen the capacities of local
police forces have led to a massive increase in police firepower and the
adoption of para-military tactics that lead to more aggressive action in Black
communities.

These police strategies create more opportunities for the kind of
escalation of violence described above. And they increase the fear of the
police in the Black community, resulting in the bad consequences to which we
have pointed. At the same time, these patterns of police action also undermine
the vital cooperation that police officers need both to better evaluate the
people they meet on the street as well as to apprehend suspects of crime.

Fourth, while all laws are formally meant to apply to Blacks and whites
equally, they often have disparate racial effects. For example, the penalties
for the use of the inexpensive crack cocaine more often found in Black
neighborhoods are far higher than those for the more expensive powdered cocaine
found in white neighborhoods. Yet, physicians have found no difference in the
effect of these drugs on the behavior of users.

Fifth, because the effectiveness of our prosecuting attorneys is heavily
dependent on the cooperation of the police, prosecutors regularly accept the
word of police against the word of citizens victimized by police officers. This
makes investigation of, let alone conviction and punishment for, police
violence unlikely. Prosecutors and judges also share some of the same latent
biases as police officers, leading them to be far less concerned about Black
victims of police violence as they are about white ones.

Sixth, police tactics and strategies are embedded from time to time in
larger, politically inspired efforts to “crack down” on crime. But because these
efforts are brought about by political pressure that comes from the white
majority, they often arise not so much in response to real changes in crime
rates but to political tensions between Blacks and whites or to white
perceptions that are ungrounded in facts. The civil rights movement and racial
disorders resulting from protests against inequality in the 1960s, as well as
general fears about the sexual revolution and the growing use of recreational
drugs, led to “wars” on crime and drugs. These “wars” led to a larger and more
aggressive police presence in Black neighborhoods that, in turn, has led to a
massive and racially discriminatory expansion of the prison population in the
United States. Of course, some of this response was also directed at a high
rate of crime in the Black community. Yet, instead of addressing the economic
and social distress, the health issues like lead poisoning and its effect on
behavior, and the demographic changes in neighborhoods abandoned by the middle
class—just some of the factors that created these high crime rates—the United
States responded with a massive expansion of the criminal justice and prison
system, again with discriminatory effect if not always with intent.

And, seventh, all of these factors operate against a background of economic
and political inequality which in turn is sustained by structural racism. Blacks
unjustly harmed by the police, or who are caught up unjustly in the criminal
justice system, have far fewer resources with which to protect themselves than
whites. They are less likely to be able to afford private attorneys. They are
less likely to know reporters who can shine a light on their travail. They have
fewer contacts in the political system they can call on for support. Economic
and political inequality often means that the usual checks against abusive
policing are missing when the victims are Black.

Solutions

There is much that can and should be done to address structural racism in
the criminal justice system. We can point to only some of them here.

First, efforts must be made to ensure that police forces more closely
represent the racial make-up of the community, where they do not do so now.
Given that Black police officers often come to share the latent biases of white
politics officers, this is no panacea. But it would help.

Second, far more training must be done to ensure that police address and
recognize the latent biases that affect their behavior. And it is critical that
police officers are trained in techniques to reduce rather than escalate
tension between themselves and members of the community.

Third, police officials must change their strategies to emphasize forming
closer bonds between the police and the community. In particular, community
policing should become the norm, not the exception.

Fourth, local governments should not rely on police departments to generate
revenues, as this creates incentives for excessive and unjust policing.

Fifth, funds must be provided to expand video monitoring of police-community
interactions. All police officers and police vehicles should be equipped with
video equipment. All interchange between the members of the community and the
police should be video-recorded.

Sixth, communities should create citizen police review boards that have
subpoena power to investigate and report on police misbehavior.

Seventh, to take the investigation and prosecution of police shootings out
of the hands of prosecuting attorneys who must work closely with police, states
should create permanent special prosecutors that work with the state police to
investigate all police shootings.

Eight, the federal government should ensure that basic data about police
shootings and other forms of violence are collected from all police forces and
also by means of population surveys. We will not be able to fully address the
structural and systemic racism of the criminal justice system in America if we
do not know its extent.

A Crucial Caveat: Systemic, Not Personal

In pointing to the ways, in which the criminal justice system suffers from
systemic or structural racism, we do not intend to demean the officers of the
law—the police, the prosecuting attorneys, and the judges. The work they they
do is difficult and challenging—none more so than that of the police officers
who risk their lives to protect the public. They should be honored for their
efforts.

And, make no mistake, that work is critical. Indeed, because they tend to
have lower incomes and live in more crime-ridden neighborhoods, members of the
Black community sometimes need the help of th e
police more than members of the white community. Black citizens often complain,
rightly, about the failure of politicians to provide the same level of police
services in their communities as they do in white ones.

The point of the Black Lives Matter movement is not primarily to cast
aspersions against the character of judges, prosecutors, and police officers or
to accuse them of bigotry. Just the opposite is true. For what is striking
about racism in America today is precisely how often it is not the product of racist intent but of latent beliefs as well as
structures and processes that have a racist outcome no matter what individuals
intend.

Summary: Why “Black Lives Matter” Matters So Much

JSPAN believes that excessive police force is used too often against Black Americans.
The majority of police officers, Black and white, treat Black Americans
with dignity and respect in their lives outside their official capacity and
inside it as well. But they are caught up in system-wide structures and
processes that lead to racially discriminatory uses of force that are contrary
to our fundamental principle of civil liberty and equality. This must be
rectified.

JSPAN believes that justice demands not only that we treat others properly,
but also that we stand up for changes in public policy that address remove
deep-seated sources of injustice, including the structural discrimination that afflicts
Black Americans. More and more white Americans try to treat Black American
fairly in their interpersonal relations. (At this point in our history of
racism and separate lives, however, conscious effort by whites is sometimes
required to overcome prejudice.) But that
is insufficient. We must advocate for a system of justice that is no
longer structurally racist.

JSPAN believes that many white Americans do not understand the
extent to which systemic and structural racism afflicts our
society. As white Americans, we are the beneficiaries of “white
privilege” which blinds us to the injustice in a criminal justice system that is
unfamiliar to us. Many of us still live in essentially segregated communities
and are not exposed to the daily indignities that Black Americans face.
We do not distinguish between the principle of fairness, and the
imperfect and uneven way that principle is applied to Black Americans.

It is for these reasons that JSPAN supports the Black Lives Matter movement.
We are part of a tradition that teaches that the legal system of society
must be equal for all, rich and poor, resident or stranger, and, in this
context, Black or white. The establishment of this kind of fair and equal
justice is an urgent matter for our political community.